Member Reviews
Read this book so long ago and unfortunately didn’t post my review in time! Review to come, apologies for the delay
This book was sad and sweet and would be great for a YA audience. I preferred Five Feet Apart, however!
A dramatic and heart breaking book about first love and loss. It's not my usual type of YA book, but it's sure to be popular.
Oh you cannot beat a good YA story.
All This Time is a fantastical tale about firsts: first love, first heartbreak and first time that you recover. It tells of the strange triangle of Kyle, Kimberly and Maggie. When Kyle and Kimberly break up Kyle eventually starts to have feelings for Marley but just how real are those feelings? We travel this emotional journey to find out.
Okay, so there are elements of this book that do require you to suspend your disbelief but if you manage to do that then this is a fantastic romance that has you absolutely rooting for the main characters.
What Lippincott and Daughtry do brilliantly is throw in some cracking twists that keep you on your toes and you genuinely do not see them coming.
Overall, All This Time is an good book that is easy to pick up and difficult to put down.
All This Time by Rachael Lippincott and Mikki Daughtry is available now.
For more information regarding Rachael Lippincott (@rchllipp) please visit her Twitter page.
For more information regarding Mikki Daughtry (@MikkiDaughtry) please visit her Twitter page.
For more information regarding Simon and Schuster Children's (@SimonKIDS) please visit www.simonandscuster.com.
Well, what can I say , cried for a while after reading this!! The authors are merciless !! But addictive, I read it more than twice actually.
The story starts with heartbreaking scenarios and has plot twist(OMG). I personally loved the book and going to talk about it for a while. I don’t want to spoil the story for the readers , just want to say, take some tissues and chocolates with you.
On a surface level this was enjoyable.
It felt very predictable at times, and in all honesty it felt like the authors were trying very hard to avoid that predictability by throwing in some really really wild curveballs that seemed intended to pack that wow factor but really I was just left thinking “what on earth is going on?”
I have mixed feelings about this one. The first part I absolutely loved, it was well written and explores grief and trauma brilliantly. But I struggled with the twists in the story and the bits that came after that.
This was a book that I Really enjoyed this read and I would recommend to others easily, I will be looking out for other titles by this author.
This book was a beautifully written, emotional story that had me completely and utterly engrossed from the start.
The leading character Kyle was so realistic and believable. He had so many layers to his personality that really made you feel a strong connection to this loveable character.
The storyline was dramatic and heart breaking, and really did take you through a huge range of emotions as you followed Kyle's life throughout.
An absolutely breath taking tear jerker that will stay with me for a very long time.
It isn't unusual for me to cry at books but before I had even got to 15% in 'All This Time' I had already started tearing up multiple times. I had expected it to be quite sad because I found Five Feed Apart heartbreaking but I didn't expect it to be quite the emotional rollercoaster it was. Every time I thought that Kyle had found some kind of happiness another bombshell hit. I'm definitely going to have to come prepared with tissues when the movie comes out!
After falling in love with Five Feet Apart, I had high expectations for this but unfortunately, it didn't work for me.
It dragged for me and felt like an immature plot. There was no flow to the writing and I was disappointed.
<b> I received an ebook copy of this book in exchange for my honest review via Netgalley, with thanks to them and the publisher. This fact has not impacted upon my review of the book. </b>
This book took me on a whirlwind journey. It was a heartbreaking, picture-perfect, jaw-dropping brilliant journey about self-discovery and how powerful our brains can be. Kyle has just lost it all, his full ride to UCLA, his plan for the future but it's okay because he hasn't lost Kim. Kimberly, his girlfriend, his rock and the person sitting beside him telling him she wants to break up when he crashes his car. Kyle wakes up to the news Kim is dead and he has to live without her. But how could he ever do that? He promised to love her forever. He sees her, everywhere and she's haunting him, reminding him of his promise. He's convinced he'll never be happy. Until he meets Marley by a grave and he falls in love with her, learning more about himself, his friends and his life than he ever could've imagined. That is until it all turns out to be fake. A coma dream. Kim isn't dead, he isn't with Marley and nothing is as he thinks. Can he ever find Marley again?
This gave me very Charlie St. Cloud vibes, the story of someone between life and death falling in love and having to deal with the consequences of it not being as it seems. Kyle's character quickly grew throughout this book and I'm glad the twist of nothing being true was added in because it seemed that everything was reaching it's perfect conclusion, there was still 40% of the book left. I have glowing praise for this book, I loved it. I didn't however, love the ending all that much. It seemed to wrap everything up with a bow in a fairytale ending without much grit. And while that's fine because it is a YA contemporary book I would've liked to see a bit more of a hardship to overcome.
As someone who enjoyed reading Five Feet Apart last year by the same author duo, I was eager to read the latest story from them. I’m sad to sat I felt very let down from my expectations.
All this Time takes the reader on a journey through death, grief, healing and recovery. Right from the first few pages of the book the readers are thrown into a very emotionally draining and distressing story. This story is meant to continue to be emotional and captivating but due to the sudden and very full-on trauma storyline, it loses it realism and enjoyment. We as readers are taken from one emotional event to another very quickly, so much so that it is very easy to lose what is actually going on.
I’ve seen so many people say this book is predictable. But, the reason I’ve actually given it 3 stars instead of 2 stars is because of how much this book’s storyline actually surprised me at times. A lot of readers said they knew exactly what was happening and what to expect, me on the other hand. Not at all!
Kyle s a realistic depiction of a young teenage man. He is extremely flawed and obsessive with the issues going on around him. He is a complete romantic and it is quite adorable at times. Marley on the other hand is a forgettable character who I didn’t attach to in any way.
The love story in this book seems a little too wild even for me who enjoys the slightly odd and out their love stories. It ended up putting me off the story completely for a couple of month which is why it took me so long to finish this book as I didn’t really want to pick it up again.
Despite all of that the pace of this book is quick and it is one of those books you don’t have to think too much about whilst reading. People will love this book I’m sure. It just wasn’t for me.
If you are looking for a sad YA romance novel then this is the book for you. It has a quick pace and also has its exciting moments. So, if you are looking for a sad romance that is quick to read then look no further.
The cover of the book caught my attention first. I have read Five feet apart and enjoyed it. I prefer the story and characters in All this time. I really got into the book when Kyle met Marley. I enjoyed the build up of their relationship and I really enjoyed where the story was taken. It was very sad in parts but also made you feel good in others. A very enjoyable book
Themes:
Contemporary, Trauma, Romance, Self-Worth, Healing, Coming of Age, Fiction, Hospital
Plot:
Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.
Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling. As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/50892133
Opinion:
After reading 'Five Feet Apart', I was excited when I had the chance to read an ARC of this book. I did feel like this book's plot had great potential, with alright characters and personalities. However the writing style and flow was definitely predictable and convenient. Furthermore, I felt that the characters lacked something... I don't know what it is exactly that I could not engage with them. I would recommend this book to younger readers as I can see how this cheesy story could be enjoyable
On paper this YA romance seemed right up my street, and I really did feel for Kyle as he recovers from the car crash and devastating loss of Kimberley’s death. His grief was truly devastating. But as he struggles with his life and after meeting Marley, you see that he’s finally able to move on, but for me I just didn’t feel their epic love. I needed more of their connection. And as I was starting to lose my way with Kyle’s story, there was a massive twist that I truly did not see coming at all. And it is huge, which then changes the direction of the story which pulled me back in. And I have to say it did leave me guessing. But sadly this wasn’t enough for me to love this book.
*Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy in exchange for a fair and honest review*
I'm struggling with what to write for this book. As a 43-year-old, I'm not the target audience but I read a lot of YA for my work as a school librarian. As a melodramatic teen I think I would've loved this book but as an adult I found there was just too much insta-love and promises of forever love for kids who were meant to be 18 at most. I've read many YA books that cover teen relationships in a more realistic and believable way. However, there are lots of fairy tale references and it definitely teeters on the edge of the Disney representation of love.
I found the plot line amusing enough but Marley was too perfect for Kyle which meant I was looking for the twist from the moment he met her. I didn't guess all of the twist but I was 75% there.
All in all, a solid 3/5 stars.
All This Time tells the story of Kyle Lafferty, a seventeen-year-old senior student who thinks he has it all. The perfect girlfriend, a loyal best friend and a future ahead as a journalism student at UCLA. Sadly, all of that is crushed when his girlfriend, kimberly, breaks up with him and dies in a car accident, all in one night. Kyle is left severely injured and having to deal with this tragic loss, but when he meets Marley, a girl that's going through a grief process just as he is, things start to get a bit better.
Despite being a 336-page novel, this book left me pretty impressed with its content. It deals with very delicate topics such as grief and depression in an accurate yet respectful way. Throughout it's pages we can see Kyle completely heartbroken over his loss, but also destroyed for the last interaction he had with his girlfriend Kimberly, where she said she need to know what it's like to turn around and not see him there. Those are two completely different emotions, yet Kyle was experiencing them at the same time. The authors made of Kyle a very complex character and to have him experience all different kinds of things, from grief to despair to guilt to love and hope again, in just 336 short pages, is like watching magic happen before your eyes. The authors unraveled everything that was going through Kyle's head in a realistic and relatable way, and so he is one of the best characters i've got the chance to read about this year.
The thing about this book is that once you read it, you have to give a pretty secretive review or else you'll spoil everything for new readers, so it's hard to talk about the events that happened after the first 20% of the book. One thing I can tell you is that i absolutely loved the plotwists the authors threw into the story. I never expected all this time to take me by surprise the way it did, but when I thought I had the plot figured out and had a clear image of what was going to happen next, a surprising revelation was thrown into the story and i was left speechless. Not once, but many times, and that's one of the strongest elements of the book. When I read a contemporary novel I don't expect many surprises, but there were many moments here where I just had to take a minute because I couldn't believe my eyes. That's how good it was.
This book also includes time jumps, something I don't usually enjoy in books, but I was never confused by them (which is my main problem with timejumps). I actually think they were necessary to give a better image to the story and what the authors were trying to tell the reader.
The full picture All This Time offers the reader to see might be messy, a road fulll of bumps, but I believe it's intentional, because that's how life is. The characters are all perfectly placed, each with something to contribute to the plot and to Kyle's story. Because at the end of the day, this is not a love story. It's about Kyle's self-growth in the midst of a tragic event, his journey into finding who he is and battling all the "dark clouds" that hover above his life and the lives of his loved ones. It's about fighting for ove and realizing that this life is worth living.
One thing I love about reading is to find several messages inside the same story, and the books that give me that end up becoming my favorites. All This Time is one of those books. Each reader that decides to give it a try won't only find one lesson inside, but several, and so i think this book has something to say to everyone out there.
A coming of age story that will have you emotional , a book about growing up and love, but tragedy comes along. I enjoyed this , very well written and clever, I was comfortable halfway in thinking I knew what was happening and then the rug is pulled from under your feet. Very clever and I thoroughly recommend this book
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
You know when you pick up a book purely because you just want a light, fluffy YA and you end up with something that you literally can’t put down? That was this.
Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.
Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling.
As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together.
And he’s right.
Look, I’ll be honest, I didn’t read the blurb, I just saw this on Netgalley and as I really enjoyed Five Feet Apart when I read it for the Reading Rush and as this had a cute cover, I thought I’d pick it up – I was not expecting it to pull on my heart strings – always read the blurb guys!
Like I said at the start, I was in the mood for a light, fluffy YA, while this was definitely YA, it doesn’t have the lightest or fluffiest subject matter! Not that that made much of a difference though, I still found this super engaging and found I couldn’t put it down. But because I didn’t read the blurb, literally every plot twist was a massive surprise, which actually made the whole thing an incredible reading experience. That being said, if you have any anxiety issues surrounding death, hospitals, injuries or anything like that, you need to read the blurb because there are a lot of all those things here.
Overall, its just an enjoyable, emotional YA book about growing up, love, lost and just about everything else in between. I have one question though, do Rachael Lippencott and Mikki Daughty have a thing about hospitals? It seems to be quite a theme! If you liked Five Feet Apart or are a fan of similar titles, you need to grab a copy of this.